Many products are packaged for sale to the consumer in liquid form with directions requiring the consumer to discharge the contents in fixed dosages in accordance with a given relationship or prescription. Typical of such products are liquid detergents, gasoline additives and liquid medicaments. Liquid medications include directions for the patient to carefully measure out a fixed quantity of the medicament in accordance with a given prescription. The latter procedure is difficult for certain age groups to comprehend, such as, for example, the elderly, young children, and the physically and mentally handicapped. Elderly people have difficulty manipulating the container to dispense a controlled quantity, whereas younger children and the mentally handicapped may misinterpret the directions.
Devices which attach to a container for dispensing a pre-measured dosage of fluid are not new. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,692 issued to W. Buehlig on Aug. 28, 1956. The Buehlig patent discloses a dispenser designed as an attachment for a container to permit a pre-measured dosage of liquid to be dispensed from the container. It is essential to the design of the Buehlig device that the dispenser be large relative to the size of the container in order to be able to collect a reasonable volume of pre-measured liquid. This makes for a verY unattractive product. The design is also cumbersome and unwieldY. Moreover, the Buehlig design does not lend itself to mass production techniques and is accordingly expensive to manufacture. The Buehlig design, as well as other prior art dispensing attachments, have been relegated to novelty items, primarily for sale with liquor bottles.